Saturday, April 12, 2008

I saw an interesting comment on this blog (browse it here). The person talked about remastering a linux that would be the real answer to Black XP. Good idea! After going through his comment I browsed web for that Windows and came to know that it is a remaster (nonetheless a pirated one) that is very convenient for home users. It is an unattended version that includes as much bells and whistles as possible. Some of those are: Tuneup Utilities, Acrobat, WindowsBlinds, Sun Java, IE7, Firefox and Thunderbird, K Lite Mega Codec Pack, Windows Media Player 11, Nero Lite, ZoneAlarm, BlindWrite, UltraISO, Quicktime Alternative, WinRAR and Windows Vista themepack plus extra widgets . Had it packed something more such as MS Office, Photoshop, DVD Ripper and Player, it would have been a great bundle for every Windows user. However, it's still good.

Now what about packing those punches (software) into linux or more specifically PCLinuxOS? Is there any such Linux that is full with all these necessary software so that a user need not have to download a single stuff from web?

The answer is Yes and No. PCLinuxOS loads a lot of stuff in just one CD – a good office suite, a good selection of media players, a cd/dvd burner, a terminal and a fairly good number of internet applications. One of its remasters, Granular Linux had really done good job offering a nice selection of apps in its Funworks release, though I am not quite aware of its present release. Of other linux desktops I found Linux Mint and Mepis to be complete desktops that add a lots of proprietary stuff. Mint has gone bold to add libdvdcss and unrar in its Daryana release. And everybody knows Mepis has always tried its best to punch as much as it can despite some hue and cry from FOSS people.

In my opinion, the power to choose and install software should be at users end because everybody is using it anyway and exclusion of some proprietary stuff like mp3 and dvd playback and rar/unrar only adds to user annoyance. That's it. For example Fedora does not pack any proprietary stuff but is there any Fedora user who has not added those proprietary stuff after installation? I just wonder who will keep oneself away from them when mp3 and dvd video have become major commodities of entertainment.

It would really be very good if a desktop linux distribution comes with Mac OS like philosophy. I mean it would be really very good if Linux becomes as stable and polished as Mac OSX (deep inside it remains bsd core) with options for installing proprietary software the way it's possible in Mac OS.

Ok. Let me dream of a PCLinuxOS remaster that will outdo any other OS under the sun if it includes following stuff:

Office Suite: OpenOffice (excluding draw, math, base and web, as there are better apps for these purpose)

Lastly a Mac Aqua like desktop environment, may be the linux aqua will differ in look but it sould as stable as Aqua. Everybody knows Linux desktop environment breaks quite often if somebody tinkers around.

Even PCLinuxOS or a remaster of it can add all these stuff into one CD, if it exclude some less used features such as wallpapers, a few icons and themes and 3d desktop stuff and follows one application per task philosophy. It seems most desktop linux distros still come with some apps/packages that a very few people use and excludes many useful apps mentioned above.

There is in fact a pclinuxos remaster with includes all these goodies and more. It includes: Wine, w32codecs, dvd playback, ntfs, openoffice with office 2007 file support, emulators, games, amarok & banshee, latest firefox & thunderbird, pptp support, windows shortcut key pre-configured, compiz-fusion and a lot more to name!

41 comments:

found this article dont know if it would help or not but could get ideas,http://howtoforge.com/the_perfect_desktop_pclinuxos_2007

and jfg69 in my post i did say It’s exactly this reason why I switched to ultimate1.7 and pclinuxos2008 he

ultimate edition 1.7 is really great and so is the remaster pclinuxos2008-he

also i think more than 98% people use pirated versions of xp in pakistan , the 2 % can be error margin but let me say that i went to a bank and the computer was having problems and he had called in a computer tecnician who had in his hand a pirated copy of xp , well i guess the bank might have had the lisence and stuff but the tech guy was using a pirated copy .

another point i can get a p4 for 500rs who in their right mind would pay more than 10000 for vista or even 5000 extra for xp

hi manmath sahu you saidHad it packed something more such as MS Office, Photoshop, DVD Ripper and Player, it would have been a great bundle for every Windows user.

let me tell u that the version i have used does have em and much more after xp installation you come to a screen where u get grouped programmes like in office OfficeCorel WordPerfect Office X3 RetailOpen Office 2.30MS Office 2003 SP3Star Office 8.10 RetailOffice 2007 + UpdatesMS Office 2007 Compatibility Pack 500 Office 2007 TemplatesClassicMenu 3.8 For Office 2008Abi Word 2.46

and u just choose the ones u like

which would be a gr8 idea for post installaton dvd for pclinuxos2007

lets face it most of the people do have dvd drives and its easier to use em as well

another remaster i,m trying out now is MIB-Live-2008.0.iso according to HometuxmachinesMIB Live Games is a treasure trove for Linux gamers; at last count over 100 games, 48 in arcade alone. As it is based on Mandriva 2008, the setup (and possible installation) are a breeze; to say that everything is included out of the box on this remaster of Mandriva 2008 ‘One’ would be an understatement indeed. http://ftp.mandrivausers.ro/pub/mib/MIB-Live/

Except some political differences India and Pakistan have much in common. Both countries have almost similar lifestyle, similar music, similar culture, similar development, and similar condition in software piracy.

In India piracy is like that of Pakistan. Only few big corporates use licensed copies and more than 98% users have pirated XP in their systems.

I am big fan of Mehdi Hassan and I came to know that some people also love Mohd. Rafi. I also share some knowledge with some really great linux users of Pakistan. We also discuss a lot of piracy and came to know that both countries face the widespread piracy.

Regarding the Hebrew Remaster, as i'm the one behind it. There is no "lighter" one, mostly because i've found that just adding hebrew translation and running an update on the regular PCL2007 CD will boost the size over the limit.

So i figured if i'm going over the CD size as it is, i'll pump it up with every good application needed for a first time use so you don't need to add anything when you are done.

I would love if you could give it a try and tell me what you think, i was kinda disappointed when my Remaster was ditched because of the Codecs/DVD that i included and would like an honest opinion.

from article Here's a quick list of suggestions to make life easier on you both:

1. Set up automatic login. Logging in is often a tough concept, I don't know why. 2. Install things like Flash, Java, MP3 support, DVD support, video streaming plugins, and true type fonts. 3. Put bookmarks on the browser's toolbar. Label them so Granny will understand. 4. Make the taskbar/panel large 5. Install Skype and/or instant messaging software, and preconfigure them so Granny can chat with you. You'll both love it. Again, automatic login. 6. Configure system updates to run as automatically as possible. 7. Standardize Granny's passwords. I know this is insecure, but I think it's worth it. 8. Make sure Granny calls you with questions, not cousin Eddie. 9. Remind Granny not to try buying software from Walmart, or online. Have her ask you first.I have OEMed Linux a lot, here are the common links I put on the desktop. Literally, the icons are named.

Write a Letter (Points to OO Writer, Abiword on one low powered machine)Internet (links to FF)Email (links to thunderbird)Pre-Configure their Junk folder, show them how to mark things as Junk.Listen to Music (Points to Amarok)GRIP Pre-COnfigured to RIP into the default music folder of Amarok, all set up.Pre-Configure any MP3 players in Amarok before I turn them looseWatch a movie (Points to Kaffeine, as you said, with ALL codecs installed)Get Pictures (points to digiKam, preconfigured with default pictures directory)Look at Pictures (points to GQiew configured to start at top of picture folder, large icons, etc)In GQView, right click will edit in default PicassaI drag the ENTIRE games menu to the desktopChat with people (points to Pidgin, autologin)I drag KDE Control Center to the desktop, leave it as Control Center

The above are the defaults. A few other items.1) Show them where downloads from the web are defaulted, change if needed.2) Remove the delete (if present) and leave the "move to trash". Everyone understands the trash can concept.3) I demonstrate how to find and install software (if savvy, otherwise, I tell them to call me).4) Enable Mouse Over Previews of everything, including MP3s.5) Pre-Configure ANY hardware they use, if required, as SANE to the desktop, etc.6) Change KDE so that unmounted CD/DVDs icons remain on desktop, make sure that all removable drives/devices show up on desktop when mounted (automount). For some reason, even when no CD/DVD there, having the icon is re-assuring.

full articlehttp://www.linuxjournal.com/content/newsflash-grannies-need-linux

hi manmath sahu , i disagree with the fit it on a cd limitation ,but thats just me, i would like more stuff to be added not removed also the ability to CHOOSE what i instal , like on black xpwell lets face it the computer specs used to be for a low end system to be a p2 450 , but now i think its more like a p3 800mhz and even then the price of optical drives has come down so much that dvd drives are as cheap as peanutsalso for a p4 1.8ghz dell with 80gb hd and 512mb ram its about rs 5000 in pakistan that does include a dvd drive , so it should not be that much of a problem

I respect your views regarding a pclinuxos remaster dvd. Actually, I wanted to limit that distro to fit in a CD, because being from a developing country like India I know downloading a live DVD would be difficult (hope you are aware of bandwidth crisis in this part of the globe). And a live CD would be good, because the user will have to download just the few required cosmetics like compiz etc.

hi manmath sahu , actually i am from pakistan , and i do definately knopw about bandwidth problems, plus right now in pakistan we r having power shortages, thats why i wanted it on a dvd with everything on it , in mypclinuxos forums i was after dvds for repos ,could not get hold of em ,what i do after downloading a linux distro , i give a copy to local software market and in local lux group tell people where to get hold of it thats a very good idea of having two versions cd and dvd

nice thoughts!some people are already working towards it.please send me your email ID i will let you know as soon as some really home user feature-rich distro comes out.keep posting on my blog.regards.

It feels good to know the news from you. As you have already made a DVD version, I would like to see some packages (that are quite useful but not present in popular desktop linux) such as kchmviewer (or gnochm), ddrescue, cdfs kernel module and wordnet in your spin of pclinuxos.

if you recall on the forums, i nearly had my head removed for doing the changes i've already done. I'm not a developer or even a programmer, and doing those things could cause issues neither of us is aware.

I will add the packages you wanted that do exist, and anything to do with "dd" that I can find.

I've just added kchmviewer and wordnet to the remaster, my friend Roy Weiss is now working on a new welcome screen. I've done a few more add-ons, and the only thing i'm unable to do is pre-set the ntfs to auto mount as i have no idea how to do it and no one on the forums is telling me :-/

It's almost a year later now, you might like to try the latest remaster i've made which is based on my previous ones which is a "powerpack" edition: http://linuxtracker.org/index.php?page=torrent-details&id=bdfab03aa65a3d658f2026fad5d69afeb2bb962a

Sorry, I could not reply soon as I was preparing my wife for her MCA exams. And I was disheartened to know that you won't be building pclos remasters any more. Visited pclos fora and your post regarding the whole state of affairs. Pity!

I really liked all your builds. In fact, a couple of copies dating 2008 - 2010 are lying around my home, and I am distributing them to my friends as and when somebody asks me.

Here, I'd go beyond reason-cause process. Dissociating yourself from pclos forums doesn't stop you from remastering. I'd still like you to make use of pclos and create remasters packing all those bits and pieces that people fight for after installing a vanilla pclos. You can still release the remasters to some torrent sites or other file sharing portals.

Please tell me how can I help you in your remastering process.

I am always thankful to your efforts. I am sure there are many who recognize your good work.